World Cup Champion, Massachusetts Native Sam Mewis Retires

Kansas City Current and United States star Sam Mewis on Friday announced her retirement from soccer at 31 years old.

“With both sadness and clarity, I am retiring from professional soccer,” Mewis wrote in a statement on social media. “Unfortunately, my knee can no longer tolerate the impact that elite soccer requires. Though this isn’t what I wanted, it’s clear that this is the only path forward for me.”

Mewis’ history of knee injuries began when she stuffed a knee cartilage injury in November 2017 that forced her to be sidelined for six months. The Massachusetts native returned for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup and helped the United States win in France. She was named 2020 U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year, but Mewis underwent knee cartilage surgeries in 2021 and 2023 that sidelined her for the majority of national team duty and forced her to miss last year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

“It reached a point where the staff at Kansas City sat me down and was like, ‘We can’t keep watching you do this. This is obviously not happening,'” Mewis told the Wall Street Journal’s Rachel Bachman of her attempt to play the 2022 NWSL season.

Mewis admitted to Bachman there was a “black cloud” hanging over her as she contemplated her decision to retire with her husband.

The two-time NWSL champion announced she would serve as editor-in-chief of women’s soccer coverage for the Men In Blazers Media Network.

Sam Mewis received praise from her peers and other top players around the world, including her sister Kristie Mewis, who she won the bronze medal with during the 2020 Summer Olympics. Sam Mewis finished her eight-year club career with 134 goals and 38 assists, and she had 84 goals and 24 assists during her national-team career.